Shinagawa Intercity

Three high-rise office towers completed in 1998 on the former JNR freight yard east of Shinagawa Station. Tower A, the tallest at 32 floors and 144.5 metres, anchors the Konan exit skyline and helped transform the district into one of Tokyo's leading corporate hubs.

Use

Office tower

Area

Minato City

Completed

1998

Floors

32 above ground, 2 below

Height

144.5 m

Developer

Kowa Real Estate, Sumitomo Life Insurance, Obayashi

Architect

Nihon Sekkei, Obayashi

Three Towers on the East Side of Shinagawa Station

Step out of Shinagawa Station’s east exit — the Konan exit — and within a few minutes’ walk, three high-rise office towers come into view, arranged side by side across a broad forecourt. Shinagawa Intercity was completed in 1998 on land that had previously served as a freight yard for Japanese National Railways (JNR), and its three towers were among the first structures to define the skyline that now marks this side of the station.

The complex comprises Tower A (32 floors above ground, 2 below, 144.5 metres), Tower B (31 floors, 3 below, 139.9 metres), and Tower C (31 floors, 3 below, 139.9 metres). Design was carried out by Nihon Sekkei and Obayashi Corporation; construction was handled by a joint venture of Obayashi, Shimizu, Kajima, and Haseko. The development was led by Kowa Real Estate (now Nittetsu Kowa Real Estate), Sumitomo Life Insurance, and Obayashi. At the base of the towers, a retail arcade and dining facilities provide daily amenity to the thousands of workers who pass through.

From National Railway Land to Business District

The site’s story begins with JNR’s privatisation in 1987. As Japan’s national railways transitioned into the JR companies, the freight yard on the station’s east side was transferred to the JNR Settlement Corporation for disposal. By 1990, a planning committee had been established — including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Minato and Shinagawa wards, the Settlement Corporation, and JR East — to draft the urban development framework for the area. That committee’s work shaped the zoning and infrastructure that eventually made large-scale construction possible.

Shinagawa Intercity was one of the first major developments to emerge from that framework. When the three towers opened in 1998, the contrast with the preceding freight yard was immediate: a stretch of operational railway land had become a cluster of Grade-A office floor plates, practically overnight in urban-planning terms. Shinagawa Grand Commons, an adjacent complex, followed in the early 2000s, and together the developments anchored a corridor of corporate tenants that has since become one of Tokyo’s most prominent business addresses. Further large-scale redevelopment continues in the broader Shinagawa area, and the Intercity towers remain a foundational reference for how the Konan exit transformed.

Summary

Shinagawa Intercity was completed in 1998 on the former JNR freight yard in Minato City’s Konan district. Its three towers — Tower A at 32 floors and 144.5 metres, Towers B and C each at 31 floors and 139.9 metres — were developed by Kowa Real Estate, Sumitomo Life Insurance, and Obayashi, and designed by Nihon Sekkei and Obayashi. The complex is a direct product of JNR’s privatisation and the urban planning process it set in motion. Walking from the station eastward past the towers today, it is easy to underestimate how quickly this part of Tokyo was remade — and how much of what followed was built on the precedent that Shinagawa Intercity set.

Related: msb Tamachi / Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba

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